Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Book Fair @ Chennai

At Chennai, it is the annual Book fair that the people of chennai eagerly awaits before Pongal every year. The intellectual and vociferous crowd in Chennai can be seen to flock at book fair, this time at chetpet at St George Anglo Indian Higher sec school, opposite Pachaiappa's college. I went to fair on 11th of this month by taking off from the work after 4 in the evening.

First of all I should tell about the traffic before reaching there. The traffic was really heavy as it was on eve of pongal holidays and people where fleeing to catch up with trains & buses and the roads where jam packed with all kinds of vehicles that mankind has ever invented. And finally managed to reach the venue by 6.20 sharp and started to waggle inside the venue.

“Kaneerai pinthodardhal” by JeyaMohan, “Thedadhe”, “Atho antha parai pola” by Dr.Rudhran were some among the titles which I bought as I came out of the venue. It was already 8.50 as they started closing the stalls by 8.30p.m. But, please keep in mind that you should have a good amount of stamina to roam around in the fair since to waggling around could make you feel tired as time passes unless you have a strong affinity for books. But all I felt while came to the exit was “Should have come bit earlier…” - the mesmerizing effect of the books.

It’s needless to say the plethora of book titles in the exhibition. Truly speaking, one can find any kind of Tamil books under the sun in this book fair starting right from children books to e-books & Tamil software.

Yes then by the way, I need to say something regarding the authors of the purchased books. JeyaMohan is one of my favorite authors in Tamil and one among the prominent writers in modern Tamil literature. He was known in the literary circles for his pensive writings and criticisms. His knowledge and way of writing is surely mind blowing especially in a novel like “Vishnupuram” which talks about some mystic town in the banks of river Sona.

Dr.Rudhran is a famous psychiatrist and is known for his other works such as “Thevaigal Asaigal”, “Uravugal” and the books which I bought where one among in this series. I like this author as can bring forth the nuances of the psychology in very intricate fashion, which even a lay man can understand. Though published in late nineties it serves the purpose of the today’s IT driven world.

Coming back to book fair, this time the book fair is organized in a better manner. Believe me! There is a stall for children to play simple science games (which I never visited as I think I am grown up), speeches by literary big shots during evenings and light music to cool off after 7 so that the whole family can visit the place get some good books of their choice at 10% discount, let the children play and then cool off with some good music. Can be a family entertainer all together!

The high light of the book fair is, a dedicated stall for the chief minister of TN, exhibiting his rare works of literature, especially his early works dating back to 1940’s. The other remarkable feature is ample circulation space for crowd and the mind blowing volume of books exhibited. There are about 400-450 stalls with almost all publishers in the Tamil publication arena exhibiting. But, if one ventures the venue with only English books in mind there can be some disappointment as there is only 10% of the stalls having English books. After all, this is book fair happening in the capital city of Tamilnadu.

In conclusion, 30th Annual Chennai Book Fair - 2007 will be a real treat to all connoisseurs of books and one will not be surely disappointed if in case there is quest for Tamil literature in them.

p.s: I’ll back on my reading experiences as soon as finish on the books I purchased.